District College Football Recap for Saturday, December 5th

By: Bruce Markey
Sunday, December 6, 2015 | 9:19 AM

The dream of a Division II National Championship is over. The #10 Slippery Rock football team fell at #5 Shepherd on Saturday 28-16. The Rock tied a school record with a 12-2 record and matched the 1998 team with advancement to the national quarter finals. With the loss, SRU also saw a 9 game winning streak come to an end.

The Rock scored on their second possession of the game, going 13 plays. Shamar Greene(West Mifflin) scored his 16th touchdown of the season on a 2 yard run, on a 4th and goal attempt. The Rock had a chance to extend their lead, Andrew Huska’s 41 yard field goal attempt was blocked in the first quarter. Shepherd used a long drive of their own but Ryan Earls missed a 43 yard attempt and SRU maintained the lead.

A turnover stopped SRU on the next drive as Keon Robinson intercepted Dante Nania(Hempfield) on the goal line. The Rams went 99 yards in 11 plays as Jeff Ziemba with Tony Squirewell for a 16 yard strike and the game was tied at the half.

Shepherd took the lead in third on a big play as Ziemba hit Billy Brown with a 74 yard bomb to take a 13-7 advantage. Greene fumbled on the first play and the Rams cashed in as Allen Cross scored his first of two touchdowns to add to the lead. Cross added a 27 yard scoring run on the next drive to push the margin to 18 points. Nania got SRU back on the board with completions of 36 and 32 yards, he then connected with Jaimire Dutrieuille(Woodland Hills) for a 9 yard td. The Rock added a safety when Cody Conway(Gateway) tackled Ziemba near the end of the quarter.

A Special teams play ended the Rock’s hopes for a comeback as Robinson returned a punt 72 yards to set up an Earls field goal. Slippery Rock could not find the end zone again and the season came to a close.

Ziemba threw for 255 yards and the 2 scores. Robinson had the interception early, the forced fumble and the big punt return. Squirewell had 7 catches and a touchdown. Shepherd is now 12-0 and will play #12 Grand Valley State in the nation semifinals next week.

Nania threw for 253 yards and one score. Greene had 19 carries for 69 yards. Dutrieuille had 10 catches. Greene became only the second SRU runner to rush for over 1,500 yards in a season, the junior needs just 178 yards to break the SRU career mark. Marcus Martin(West Mifflin) had 3 sacks, he finished with 16.5 on the year.